Building the ultimate toyhauler!

I have been busy so haven't spent much time on the trailer hunt but did stop today on the way home from Boston and saw a nice one, a 7x14 vnose but am stuck now on the size and think it might be too big?



My current trailer is 5x8 so 40 sqft and definitely to small.

I have been looking at 6x12's(72 sqft) but feel there a little tight for what I want so have been drawing plans for a 7x12 or 6x14(84 sqft), the 6x14 is not a common size but the 7x12 is.

So the trailer in the pic is a 7x14 (98 sqft so more than twice my current trailer) and seemed huge inside, I had a 7x16 before that was great as far as room goes but to big for my needs now.

The trailer in the pic is 1865 lbs empty so if I added 400lbs to it outfitting it and then 1000lbs of motorcycles thats 3265lbs loaded to go. Even 3500lbs would be doable.

Not sure if I should save a couple hundred pounds for a single axle (trailer in pic has brakes on both axles) and 14 sq ft, or go for the bigger trailer? I like the vnose with the drop as it should cut through the wind better.

My hillbilly rv



Kitchen hangs on the outside. That's the shower cutain on the left



bunk folds up against the wall, for now guests use a cot.



It'll hold 3 bikes easy, (shower test in progress)



Shower in use



It's a 6x12 vee nose, you can haul larger ones with a half ton truck but I don't want to and this one is adequate for my needs. Water for shower is heated by a propane camp heater, gravity fed from a container on the roof, through the heater and into a container on the ground. Then the container on the ground is placed on the roof and rub-a-dub-dub.
Surprisingly, the 7gal container spewed water uninterrupted for a full 20 minutes.

Back to help. See you had a Work & Play. Mine was 8' wide, and while I liked the interior space, your idea of a 7' wide trailer would be better in many ways.

I towed with my half ton Avalanche with SnugTop topper, and up hill from Ft. Worth to Amarillo, to Moab, in head winds I was getting sometimes less than 7mpg per tank. With a tail wind, up hill, east bound out of Albq. NM I was amazed to get a 12mpg tank. It seemed to be the wind, more than the weight of the trailer with a GSA and X-Challenge inside. I once towed 400 miles to the coast and back without bikes, and got hammered on mileage again with winds.

8' trailers required mirror extensions to be able to see down the side of the trailer on the highway, and backing. The truck is 6' wide, standard mirrors work well with 7' trailers.

If doing again, I would sure buy another Work & Play, but if I were building, v-nose, 7'. I would also go tandem axle, hoping to be able to tow on a flat tire till I found a safe spot to change the flat one. And with a tandem you can often drive up on a stack of wood blocks with the single good tire to change a bad one, without risking a jack accident, or messing on a badly sloping shoulder.

The reason I ended up with a 14x7 is that it was the smallest trailer I could find with tandem axles. Each axle (in general) has a 3,500# capacity, if it has brakes. A single axle trailer is good for 3,500# and a tandem is good for 7,000#.

I also like the security of a second set of wheels on the ground.

This is what we use, works great.It will be for sale next spring when new replacement get delivered.

Those are cool but tough to use for my daily trips to the track and huge tongue weight.

I agree on the second axle, I think it's much easier on the tires to spread the weight out.

The 7' wide dual axle is making sense to me as well, the trailer in the pic is pricewise the same as a single axle because it's on special which makes it that more atractive to me.

DOM, Love the hillbilly trailer and will be using some of your ideas, your folding bed is close to what I was thinking.

I was going to use the Blazintech couch like this one but know from sleeping on them that they suck for sleeping and at $500++ each I think I can build something better.





Same thing on the Bunk beds, although I think these are better to sleep on than the couch, for another $500 I think I can build them better.

I have these "Camo Cots" that I used in my motovan that are stackable bunk beds and if I made new frames and brackets on the walls I could do fold out bunk beds and only take up 2-3" of space on the wall.





They actually were comfortable to sleep on.

I like this thinking.

Also, take a look at Geeks build of a Mercedes Sprinter. There were some great ideas in that one. Like a 4 inch PVC pipe mounted on top and running the length of the vehicle. Cap both ends, attach spigot near the rear end and you can attach a camp shower and have warm water (solar heated while you're riding) Obviously you'll have to get the water in somehow so you've got to add that facility somehow.

It is not a small toyhauler... but I saw some of the options you were originally looking at..

Currently run a 28 foot Class C with 2 slideouts. Pull a 16 foot Trailer for the quads. MPG out of the ford v10 is 8 to 11 depending on how fast I'm running down the road, towing has minimal effect on the mpg, speeds above 65 have the biggest impact.

Full shower, bathroom, kitchen, big beds, 4k generator and lots of storage for tools and supplies makes it a welcome place to live in for days on end when we are ATV'ing.

If your planning a lot of overnight trips with no hookups, it is a valid way to run.

I had a Class C and it did work well, I don't have the parking for one now so am limited to a trailer.

I'm in the same boat at the moment, as I'd like a "smallish" toy hauler but have become disillusioned by what's available on the the market and the cost. I looked at new Work-n-Play's last week and, although the trailer itself is well built, I just can't get over how cheaply/poorly built the interiors are. Apparently they have no QC at the factory, as I found multiple glaring issues that, even when fixed, make me question the longevity. I do have a 3/4 ton diesel, so weight is not a huge concern. I'd be hauling my GS or my Honda Pilot ATV, so it's not that I need a huge space.

So....right know I'm thinking about a slide-in camper from Lance or Arctic Fox and pulling a trailer for the toys. That way if it's just a day trip or a hotel is in the plan, I can just yank the trailer and leave the camper at home. This also lends me the ability to pull a boat if I ever make the idiotic choice to buy another one of those money pits! They make quite a few 1/2 ton slide ins now, so that may be an option for you too

I agree on using every square inch of space, I have done a rough plan of what I have been thinking, this is 7x12.

It's a start if that's what he wants it to look like without the bikes.
But, as you said, he needs to sketch in the bikes, water containers, fuel containers, tools, bags, helmets, boots, tv, radio, microwave etc etc etc.


Moar sketches, moar moar!!!!!!

Easy Geode...easy...just a start.
I have more sketches(and they are all 3/4"scale drawn correctly to a trailer I measured) and am only in the design phase right now, I'm shopping for a trailer and if it's 7'wide x12' I can do some things and if it's 6x 12 or 14' I would do it another way.

I was hoping people would share some of there ideas they had when building a trailer and would love to see yours! I'm open to any input and even the hillbilly hauler had some great ideas.

I couldn't post any more today because I left work early to ride!

Alsoo... I have built 3 before this one but want this one to be"high end".

I already have the propane shower unit and have picked a water tank and pump, I know the shower unit and have priced and found the cabinets I could use( but will probably build them myself and am pricing materials now). have looked at floor material and have windows picked out as well.

I am currently building a 10,000 sq ft custom home in Westchester cnty NY and have been in the construction field for 30+ years so am comfortable with this scale project.

I thought about the truck camper but need to bring 5 bikes to the races so that would mean a bigger trailer and a truck camper so I'm priced out, again...